I think that this is a great question all about fairness and equality of treatment in inner city schools versus suburban schools. This is definitely a problem in my opinion because inner city schools are looked upon as so much worse than suburban schools; when in reality, a lot of the same problems happen in both types of schools.

I grew up kind of in the suburbs outside of Washington DC. I live in a part of my town that is predominantly white and middle to upper middle class. However, I went to a school that was not. My high school was a mixing bowl of all races; black, white, Asian, Indian, Latino, Arab, and more. It was sometimes referred to as a “ghetto school”. There was a known drug problem at my school but nothing was really done about it. Plus we also had kids who got expelled from their other schools transfer into our school. This obviously did not help the problem be stopped. Ironically, most of the people that did sell drugs from my school were white.

In some schools where the drug and crime rate is so high that it is hurting the school and its students, I think that metal detectors and police dogs can be justified and useful. However, in a lot of the inner city schools, the only reason for metal detectors and police dogs is that the school wants to prevent a drug problem. If there is no problem at the moment, then why take the precautions to stop it? That is a question that I think should be looked at. People think that because most inner city schools are filled with minorities, that they will do bad things. This is such a stereotype and it needs to be addressed. It has been shown that minorities are more likely to participate in selling drugs and be in gangs, but that does not mean that we should go after them only. I think that having kids go through a metal detector and searching them also is an issue of invasion of their privacy. These kids should not be searched unless there is a specific reason found. Also I think the issue of profiling comes into place here as well. Minority kids are being profiled as bad kids who just skip school and sell drugs. I think that people need to look more into the good that they do and reward that than punish them for something they have yet to do.

I am definitely an avid Hunger Games fan. I have read all three books, in about 4 days mind you, and I have seen the movie, at midnight on opening night. When reading about the character Rue in the books, I pretty much just pictured a normal and healthy little girl. I honestly didn’t even think about whether she was black or white with just tan skin, even though it says that she had dark skin in the book. The story of her friendship with Katniss, the main character, and her strength in the hunger games are the things that I thought about the most. When seeing the movie I do have to admit that I was not completely expecting a little black girl to play the part of Rue, but it was not something that I was hung up on in the slightest. For example, in the scene of her death, I was paying more attention to how the young actress portrayed her character’s love for Katniss as a good friend and “big sister” type and her emotion and fear of dying so young and in such a scary and violent way. Yes she is supposed to be an innocent little girl, but innocence is not supposed to be shown by race. Innocence is shown by either age or inexperience of something in life. Katniss forms an alliance with Rue because she reminds her of her little sister Prim. The characters Rue and Prim both have innocence because both of them are little girls who have not experienced life in the way that others have.

I am so disturbed and shocked to see the extremely racist twitter and tumblr comments that some people have made about “The Hunger Games” movie. To say that a movie was completely ruined and that they no longer wanted to see it just because a character or two is portrayed as “dark” skinned, that is complete bullshit. Social media is a place to say what you want freely about whatever you want, within reason. However, most people think that they really can say anything about anyone, even something that is very hurtful. These people will hide behind their computers or phones like cowards. They think that just because they are not saying it out loud or to the person directly that is it okay. Well, it is not. I truly cannot believe how narrow-minded and not accepting of new ideas people can be in this day and age.

There are so many other things in the movie that actually were changed from the book that I saw, yet people still continue to focus on why Rue, Thresh, and Cinna were cast as black actors. Things such as the avox story being taken out, the story of how Katniss receives the mockingjay pin, and how the muttations at the end are portrayed. I was very upset about some of these things, but some of the characters being black were the farthest things from my mind.

Media provides all sorts of information and different types of media present different view of stories. Some tend to be bad and some tend to be good, but some can be very untruthful or more importantly half truthful. Media today tends to focus on corruption and despair more than events that are respectable and amazing. These stories that are being run are stories that people want to hear not necessarily the truth. Things like corruption, death, abuse, fatalities, and more are some key words that will draw people’s attention to stories. All media outlets are businesses and they are there to make money. Therefore, they skew things and tell half-truths to make things more interesting to their consumers. As an example, America’s media consumers “eat up” information and criticism about President George W. Bush and how he has dealt with the war in Iraq. Reasons that shows like “Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” are so popular are because all the hosts do is criticize big names in American politics and make fun of current events.

Stories that are positive about the war on terrorism and about the political figureheads that are less popular do not tend to sell. There are so many good stories about soldiers in Iraq doing great things or events that bring people together, but it is not what the people want to hear. It is so easy to find and write a story about a heroic soldier but it doest happen as often. Another example in our lives is what happened this year with Jerry Sandusky. During the scandal, the media was so focused on what Sandusky did and that Joe Paterno did not say anything. Since then Penn State has done so many things as a school that have been great. Number one on that list is THON! We raised over ten point six eight million dollars this past year, which is a new record, and the media barely did coverage of it. This angers me so much because no matter how hard we try to overcome this scandal, the media will continue to try to tear down our progress with more stories about the bad things. Today, the media still is talking about Penn State and Jerry Sandusky because of the size of the scandal, even though Sandusky is no longer really associated with our school. In conclusion, I believe in a vast majority of the media’s information and stories that they tell, I just don’t believe that they are telling the whole story.

What can we do to overcome race? This question has boggled minds for millions of people in multiple generations throughout society. Society will never fully be free of race tension in my opinion; a sad statement, but one I believe to be completely true. Making people aware of racial differences and educating them can do its part, but not to a full extent of having us fully overcome race tensions. Race is involved in every part of our lives whether we like it or not. It usually pops up in the most uncomfortable situations, but sadly there is nothing we can do about it. When we fill out applications for college or a new job, we put down our race. On our medical records, our race is filed and held there forever. In these examples, race is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can create tension within groups of people, especially if numerous people of different races are after the same thing. I think that it is just human nature to look for differences in the people whom you encounter. When we meet new people, we tend to lean towards befriending others with similarities comparable to our own. The reason we do this is because we want to feel comfortable around that other person and in our own skin as well. Race is just one example of a physical characteristic that we are judged on.
People in general tend to want to feel superior to others; therefore, they may unintentionally disparage other races that are different from their own. In the past, society has been accustomed to being separated by race, even after desegregation. Even looking at living areas in urban cities today, people flock to the communities that are of the same race because they feel so much more comfortable in that environment. I don’t think that this will every fully change because people have a need to feel comfortable, and this separation makes them comfortable.
Awareness has done its part in our society to release some racial tensions and create a safer and more interracial environment. In school kids learn to treat everyone equally. As much as we try however, kids will usually follow their parents’ views on things and a lot of parents still have an old fashioned view of race. Although we have come a long way since the efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks to end racism, it is still prevalent in our society. Even though millions of people have showed their support for equality since before the Civil Rights Movement there are sadly millions of others who disagree with them. Even in our modern society, the Ku Klux Klan, an organization strictly for white supremacy, rights still holds meetings to this day. Awareness has done its part but race can never be overcome by the work and opinions of others. It has grown to be a major part of how our society works and functions. I guess you could say it has dug a hole for itself and it is only getting deeper and deeper. Unfortunately this fictional “hole” will never be fully filled.

To say something is wrong without at least trying to learn about it or understand it first is so ignorant to me. Everyone has their own right to think in whatever way that they want or to believe in whatever religion that they want to. I have taken a couple of religious studies classes throughout the last few years and learned about all sorts of religions. I believe that taking these classes has made me more understanding and tolerating of other faiths because I have taken the time to learn about them. I wish that more people were like this in the world because it would be such a more peaceful place if everyone just accepted everyone and did not judge them based on their religious views.

I am of the Jewish faith and believe in Judaism because I have learned about it throughout my entire life; I was just raised that way. I went to Sunday school for many years to learn about the Torah, learn the Hebrew language, and learn about Jewish culture. I had a Bat Mitzvah at the age of 13 in which I had to prepare for over a year for in order to learn my Torah portion and learn how to lead Friday night and Saturday morning services. Not to mention, I celebrate and have celebrated all the Jewish holidays, such as Passover, Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and more, for as long as I can remember. As I have gotten older though, I have changed my views a bit. I still identify as a Jewish woman but I also don’t agree with one hundred percent of what the stories of the Old Testament say. I now identify more with the Jewish culture, but I do believe that there is a higher power out there. This power may or may not be the “god” that is described in the Torah, but there is definitely something out there.

I have a lot of friends of other faiths and I would never ever think to tell them that what they believe or the way that they think is wrong. Just like me, they have been raised into a specific religion and have been taught to think a certain way. Some of my friends are very religious Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, etc. I do talk about religion sometimes with them, but that is only so that I can learn more about the way that think and why. No matter what religion they are, they are still my friends and they will be there for me in a time of need no matter if they believe in a different “god” than I do. If someone chooses to believe something different than I do, then good for him or her. I don’t care what you believe as long as you don’t judge other for believing what they want to as well.

How do I personally think that I should go forward to recognize (child) victims of sexual abuse? This is such a hard question to answer, because there are so many things that I can do.

I do know a few people who have been sexually abused as children. My best friend, for example, was molested by her brother for years and never told a soul about it. In the 8th grade, she finally broke down and told me. I was so shocked when those words came out of her mouth that I legitimately couldn’t think of anything to say back. I just hugged her and let her cry on my shoulder. Since then, I have tried to do many things to help her; I have been there to listen and to sympathize when she needed/s a friend, I have pushed her to go to therapy to talk out her problems and try to move past her trauma, and I have also helped her through the tough time of telling her parents what her brother had done. As much as I try and have tried, I cannot remove that experience and those memories from her life. All I can do is be there for her as much as she needs.

As a Psychology major, I learn about abuse and rape in many of my classes. I would like to become a Psychologist or Social Worker in which I can help these children and adults deal with and overcome their rape and/or abuse. I have started this by applying to a few internships for this upcoming summer at RAINN, the DC Rape Crisis Center, and more, in which I will be working with victims of abuse and sexual abuse. Hopefully I will receive a position from one of these organizations and will be able to carry out my plan.

In the event of Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno, and Penn State, I believe that as students we now have the responsibility of advocating for the victims that were attacked at our school. I am very proud that we now have a partnership with the Rape Incest Abuse National Network (RAINN), and I think that that is something that we should definitely continue to help out with. This school in general is definitely one that frowns upon the acts of Jerry Sandusky; I mean don’t we have the largest student run philanthropy in the world? That’s right, THON. We as students need to work ten times harder this year to ensure the success and productivity of THON. I think that we just need to rally round all the kids at THON and what we can and are doing to make a difference in their lives as well as raise money and awareness for the children who fell victim to Jerry Sandusky.

Before this past class' lecture I had thought about immigration a tiny bit, but not in the way it was talked about in class. I knew that the Native Americans were here when the Europeans came over and that they took the land by force. I mean just watch Pocahontas and you can see that. I also have read things about the Native Americans being confined in the United States to small reservations. Hearing Sam talk about how much they have been persecuted has definitely opened my eyes. If they were here originally, shouldn't they get the same rights as other Americans? They are just pushed aside and it is so sad to see how a country like ours can do that. It just baffles me that the crime and violence rate of Native Americans, especially on their reservations, is so high. I mean the example of the Pine Ridge Reservation we talked about in class shocked me. How can a place like that have a 50 percent high school dropout rate, an 80 percent unemployment rate, and such low life expectancies. I mean where else in the United States to males live to be 48 and Females live to be 52; it is absolutely absurd! They as a people were here first, living so peacefully, and the Europeans kicked them out. They are better and deserve to be treated so much better than the savages that Americans view them to be.

I am no stranger to persecuted people. I am Jewish and my family and people have been persecuted for thousands of years. I am fairly certain that we are the most persecuted group of people in the world throughout all of history. When my grandparents and great grandparents came to the United States from Austria and Romania, it was to avoid persecution in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Both sets of grandparents came over by ship to Ellis Island looking forward to a fresh start and a new life. My family on my mom’s side however wanted so badly to be treated normal that they changed their last name to a more ”normal” or “American” one just so that they could fit in. How hard that must have been for them, giving up their identity in order to make a better life for their children. The sad thing was that once they arrived, they were still refused jobs and other things just because they were immigrants.

This country today has the most diverse population in the world. America was discovered by immigrants and was made up of immigrants. I think that we as Americans have a responsibility to learn about the other people that live among us every day. People should not be treated differently because of where they come from. If they work hard to get here, as did all of our ancestors, they should be given the same rights.